Just the Way I Like It (8 page)

“You’re not using them?” Kevin asked as Ben handed him the tickets.

“Nah. We’re staying home a lot more now.” He gave Jessica a sweet smile as he helped her to her feet. “Which is why we’re heading out now, in fact.”

“It’s early,” Sara protested, but she got up to give her sister and brother-in-law kisses.

“Ava needs bedtime stories and Ben does the best character voices,” Jessica said, squeezing her husband’s hand.

Damn
. Dooley took a deep breath. He didn’t need that, he didn’t need that, he didn’t need that.

Maybe if he said it enough he’d get back to believing it. Before all of his buddies fell in love, it had been a lot easier.

Digging the knife a little deeper, Ben said, “You all should think about getting an Ava or two.”

He hugged Danika as he said it and her cheeks got pink again. Dooley wondered if anyone else noticed.

“If I had Ava at home I’d probably never leave,” Sara said with a little sigh.

Mac stood next to her and at her words he straightened fully and looked down at her. “Yeah?” he asked, gruffly.

She wrapped her arm around his waist and nodded. “Yeah.”

“I know where to get one,” he said.

Sara wiggled her eyebrows. “Do you?”

“Let’s go home and I’ll show you.”

“And on that note,” Sam said loudly. “Everyone out of my house.”

“Love you all,” Danika said as Jess and Ben and Sara and Mac headed for the door. She kissed Dooley’s cheek. “Sorry about the crazy girls.”

“Oh, hell, hanging out with Sam has been hard on all our egos over the years,” he teased. “At least I now have a hamster and toothpaste story to put up against some of his.”

She grinned. “Glad I could help.”

“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out,” Sam said to Dooley and Kevin. He scooped Danika up in his arms and started for the bedroom as she shrieked and giggled.

Dooley watched them go, thinking that was exactly what he’d do in Sam’s shoes.

“Well,” Kevin said with a sigh as they stepped out into the night and locked Sam and Dani’s door behind them. “It’s just you and me. Again.”

“Too bad you’re not my type,” Dooley said.

But that joke wasn’t new. Neither was his feeling of restlessness and dissatisfaction. It was getting stronger, but it had been there for awhile.

“Yeah, but you’re stuck with me,” Kevin said. “So you wanna go to the casino night fundraiser with me?”

Dooley looked at the two tickets in Kevin’s hand, then took one. “Sure. Why the hell not?” He might even get into the spirit and pull out his tux.

It had been a
long
time since he’d dressed up and partied with the high rollers. Or with people pretending to be high rollers for a good cause.

“What could beat gambling, liquor, women in sequins and cancer?” he asked, stopping by his car.

Kevin chuckled. “When you put it that way, I can’t wait.”

“We might have to dust off our pleases and thank yous.”

“You think there will be some classy girls there?” Kevin asked with a grin.

“I think there might be some girls who’d like to pretend they’re classy for one evening,” Dooley said.

“There’s a good chance they’ll be using
glass
champagne glasses instead of those plastic ones that have the bottoms that fall off all the time,” Kevin said, studying the fancy invitation.

“It might even be
good
champagne in those glasses,” Dooley added.

“I think we have to go,” Kevin said.

Dooley agreed. One of his deepest, darkest secrets was that he liked this stuff.

He liked tuxedos as much as he liked blue jeans. He liked champagne as much as he liked beer. And he liked spinach pastry hors d'oeuvres as much as he liked little wienies in barbecue sauce.

“I have a confession,” he told Kevin. “But you can’t tell the guys.”

“Okay.”

“I know how to ballroom dance.”

Kevin cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“I might even prove that to some lucky lady next Friday night.”

“You better be careful. If you waltz some woman around, she might expect you to actually know what the word chivalrous means.”

He grinned. “Damn right.”

Gallant, courtly, valorous. He could so do all of that.

And if her fancy sequins-covered dress was backless, he might just show her that even ladies deserved to be ill-behaved sometimes.

About the Author

Erin Nicholas is the author of sexy contemporary romances. Her stories have been described as toe-curling, enchanting, steamy and fun. She loves to write about reluctant heroes, flawed heroines, sex with food and happily ever afters. She does not like to write dark moments, synopses or bios. You can find Erin on the web at
www.ErinNicholas.com
,
ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com
, on Twitter (
www.twitter.com/ErinNicholas
) and even on Facebook (
www.facebook.com/erin.nicholas.90
)(when necessary).

Look for these titles by Erin Nicholas

Now Available:

The Bradfords

Just Right

Just Like That

Just My Type

Just the Way I Like It

Just for Fun

Anything & Everything

Anything You Want

Everything You’ve Got

Hotblooded

No Matter What

Coming Soon:

Just a Kiss

There’s having fun… And then there’s falling in love.

Just for Fun

© 2012 Erin Nicholas

The Bradfords, Book 4

It was a chance meeting, a spontaneous, hot moment, a never-to-be-repeated encounter. So when the gorgeous redhead he knows only as Sugar walks into the bar and heads straight for him, Doug “Dooley” Miller knows he’s in trouble. But he’s sure not going to mind.

She needs a date to some swanky something-or-other. He’s a fish-sticks-and-denim guy, but for a woman who’s not afraid to get naughty in an elevator, he can stand a couple days of smoked salmon and Armani.

Morgan James admits she doesn’t really know
Doug, but she needs him to keep her mind—and hands—off her ex. A man who, despite the fact he stole her ideas, she’s afraid could charm her into repeating her mistakes. Only Doug can make her forget the weasel exists. Besides, it’s just this one time.

What started as not even a one-night stand has Dooley feeling things that he’s never felt before. And that’s
outside
of the bedroom. Don’t even get him started on what’s happening between the sheets. Why does he have a feeling that, as far as flings go, they’re doing something wrong? Then again, if they’re falling in love, they might just be getting that right.

Warning: Contains a woman who knows what she wants, a man who knows what he doesn’t want, and a proposition that shows them both that they’ve never really wanted anything like this before.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Just for Fun:

“You date a lot?” she asked.

“Enough.”

“Lots of regular girls in Omaha?”

The corner of his mouth curled. “Enough.”

“How come you haven’t married one of these real regular girls?” she asked, breaking a chip into little pieces.

His eyebrows shot up. “Marriage isn’t in the plans. I date girls who know that, who feel the same way. I don’t date anyone exclusively, or too many times, for that matter. Things get complicated if you get to know a girl too well and vice versa.”

“But you do have sex with them?”

“Of course.”

She rolled her eyes, irritated by the conversation. Which made no sense. “You just keep things at sex and a few laughs and that’s it?”

“Right.” He said it more emphatically than was needed.

Okay, already. She got it. Hell, it was what they were doing—casual, sex, fun, period. He didn’t have to act like she was getting too close for comfort. This was more or less a business arrangement. Even
more
straightforward than the relationships he apparently had all the time.

“So,” she said, selecting another chip. “You worried about some performance anxiety or something?”

He set his glass down hard. “What?”

“You need to dress me down and take me bowling before we go to bed because that’s what you’re used to? You can’t perform under different circumstances?”

He narrowed his eyes. “You think I need to see you with your hair down and eating nachos before I can get it up?” He laughed. “Uh, no.”

“Then what is this? This wanting me to be a regular girl?”

“Regular girls have more fun. They’re not uptight. They don’t have big business deals nagging at the back of their minds keeping them from focusing on me. They don’t have fancy lingerie so they don’t care if I rip it getting it off of them. They don’t worry about what other people think so they don’t hold back on orgasms the neighbors can hear.”

She swallowed hard. Having Doug rip her panties off sounded damned appealing. Even if they were expensive. “Is this wisdom based on experience with regular girls or…not-regular ones?”

Morgan could admit business was never far from her mind. But she wasn’t sure she held back on the orgasms exactly. It was more… Oh hell, she didn’t know. Maybe she did hold back. She had orgasms but she didn’t lose her mind.

“I’ve been with enough of both to have formed an educated opinion,” he said.

Of course he had. Why did she keep bringing this subject up?

“Meaning you’ve pegged me as high maintenance and too much work?”

“Pretty much,” he admitted. “Life’s short. Best to spend it doing things I love. I’m not going to wait an hour for a woman to fix her hair to go to the grocery store or paint her nails or try on a hundred dresses. The best look for any woman is a rumpled old T-shirt, no panties and her hair in a ponytail.”

He was talking about all the reasons he didn’t think he’d like being with her and yet she couldn’t help her smile. “You’ve put some real thought into this.”

He nodded and shoved a chip into his mouth.

“What are some of these things you love that you want to spend your time doing?”

They were wrong for each other and that was wonderful. This was a weekend thing and the more reasons they had to cheerfully part ways at the end of it, the better.

“Being with people I care about and who care about me. Working a job I love and I’m good at. Sports, camping, being my nieces’ favorite uncle.”

“You have nieces?” She wasn’t sure why that surprised her.

“Yep, three of them. One of my sisters has two girls and the other has one.”

“What makes you their favorite?”

He gave her a grin that made her stomach flip. “I like to play. I’ll get on the floor, get loud and messy and silly with them.”

She had no trouble believing that. But all at once his childish tendencies were a lot more attractive. Plus, she knew now that he could turn it off. At least for long enough to eat dinner with her boss. He was interesting. And very, very hot.

“I’ll admit I’m a little concerned about the ripped lingerie,” she said casually, sipping from her straw.

He blinked as they changed topics. “Oh?”

“These were expensive.”

“You can buy more.”

She smiled. No promises of being careful or gentlemanly. “I have another idea.”

“I’m open to suggestions as long as they come off.”

She glanced around. Everyone in Bud’s Bowl was otherwise engaged. Most had their backs to them anyway as they concentrated on the alleys.

Through her dress she felt the strip of her panties where they crossed her hip. The dress’s material was thin and she was able to roll the edges of her panties down by sliding her palms over her hips through the dress. She had to lift her butt off the seat of the stool and wiggle but she was able to work the tiny bikini panties to mid-thigh. Then she crossed one leg over the other, grabbed the edge of the panties and pulled them to her ankles where she kicked them free.

Then she handed them to Doug. “Now there’s no worry about ripping anything when we get back to the room.”

Doug stared at the silky scrap in his hand. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Maybe regular girls don’t do stuff like that,” she said with a lift of her shoulder. She picked up her soda again. They wouldn’t work out long term, but she was going to show him other girls could be fun too.